Bambi Meets Godzilla

Being Memorial Day and all, I figured I'd come up with a memory that would lift everyone's spirits on this somber day and maybe bring a tear to an eye or two in the Dark Humor crowd. 

 I most likely saw Walt Disney's  "Bambi" as a child in a theater similar to the old Bijou Theater in Portland, Maine. Or maybe I saw it the first time on an Air Force base somewhere out west, in Japan, or Hawaii in the 1950s. Doesn't matter, according to family members, I loved the movie.

Fast forward to my college years at Towson College in Towson, Maryland. There I enjoyed my first taste of art films, independent films and some really whacked films, courtesy of the Baltimore Film Festival that had moved to Towson College from the University of Baltimore in 1973. 

The variety of films I caught at the theater in Stephen's Hall were eye opener's for me. I saw "Pink Flamingos" there, a year after it premiered at the Film festival when it was still at the University of Baltimore. This film shocked the bejeesus out of me. I had never encountered such bizarre people before. I would later actually show up at some parties that some members of the cast were at, but at the time of my first viewing, the movie was a wonderful revelation.

Memorable films I caught at Stephens Hall in the early 1970s included Indy film, "Cattle", which graphically covered the lifespan of a beef cow from conception right through to the dinner table. Designed to turn me into a veggie loving commie, I was able to resist and to this day I eat meat with relish, though I know Vegging it would probably have been the smarter choice. I can't say I wasn't warned.

I saw "Joe" there: a stark and ugly film about the stereotypical conservative of the day clashing with the counterculture world that had grown out of the 1960s. It starred Peter Boyle as the Urban redneck asshole who wreaks vengeance after his daughter gets mixed up in the counter culture. . His portrayal made the hairs on my arms stand straight out. It was a chilling Hollywood depiction about what waited for my sorry hippy ass if I dared to enter the real world. It was two hours of exaggerated violence where nobody won; everyone died or was a total wreck by the end of the film.  

I saw my first and only X rated animated film there. Titled "Felix the Cat", it followed Felix, who was a Cool College Cat mingling with bros and hoes, smoking pot, and fornicating his way around his city neighborhood. Black folks were represented as crows, and of course the police were pigs. I have seen the film since then and it did nothing for me the second time around. But, like "Pink Flamingos" and "Rocky Horror Picture Show", both of which played at Stephens Hall:  all of them were part of the film underground of the day. Just their existence made conservative panties bunch from coast to coast. I loved it.

All of those films left a mark in my personal film archive. But the film that really pounded home the power of the Indy Film world for me was a short student film that is now rated as one of the best cartoons ever made. It is titled "Bambi Meets Godzilla". It is a very short film created as a class project I assume at some college somewhere in 1969. It is 99 seconds of genius. 

I hope you enjoy it ..........................